Salazar Excludes Alleged ‘Castro’ Sympathizer from Committee Hearing

Congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar (R-Fl) prevented Representative Barbara Lee (D-CA) from participating in a hearing regarding President Joe Biden’s policies’ impact on Cubans. 

Representative Salazar, who chairs the subcommittee, blocked Representative Lee’s participation for her alleged support and sympathy towards former Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.

Representative Joaquin Castro (D-TX) had asked for both Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) and Lee to be permitted to participate. 

Salazar responded that Representative Schultz was “more than welcome, Barbara Lee is not.”

As reported by the Floridian’s Daniel Molina, Salazar justified her objection to Lee’s participation due to Lee’s relations with the Cuban regime. 

According to a press release from Rep. Salazar’s office, Rep. Lee is accused of being “a known apologist of the Cuban communist regime and friend to Fidel Castro.” The press release further cites that Rep. Lee “visited Cuba over 21 times since the ‘70s and had even gone as far as mourning Fidel Castro’s death in 2016.”

Salazar also explained via X she would not voluntarily support someone who “believes that Fidel Castro is the best thing that has happened to the Cuban people in the last 70 years.”

Salazar pointed to a November 2016 press release from Lee, in which Lee qualified Cuban dictator Fidel Castro as “a recognized world leader who was dedicated to the Cuban people.” 

More broadly, Salazar has disagreed with President Biden’s foreign policy strategy with Cuba, which has sought to decrease sanctions on the island. 

Under President Donald Trump’s administration, the  U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) applied a series of measures to enforce sanctions on Cuba.

Conversely, Biden has decreased sanctions and attempted to support Cuba’s private sector

Conservatives claim such an approach will only enrich the current regime and further decrease Cubans’ rights and freedoms.